A (sorta) chef's 1 year review of the spydiechef.

[Wartstein]

How much will thinning out the edge bevel improve the cutting performance vs actually thinning down the primary grind?

What's the stock thickness behind the edge? Is the kapara better?

A good question that I haven't seen anybody do a specific test for.

A thin blade stock and thin primary grind improves cutting performance in that it passes through material better but so does thinning out the edge bevel. If the main grind is thick, a thinned out edge makes a huge difference. I had a Kizer which was way above 20 dps and that was dreadful to cut with until I took it down to 17 dps. The blade is still chunky and the edge bevel is wide but the performance is very different.

Maybe a question is, if the behind-the-edge thickness is really thin, how big a difference is there between 20 and 17 dps?

I took a PM2 down to 12 dps and it held up fine and seemed to slice a hole lot better. Looks funky though.

Absolutely true of course.

But while it is pretty easy to give a knife a more acute edge angle or thinning it out just behind the edge, it is not really an option (for me at least) to give it an overall thinner bladestock without special equipment (that most don´t have at home?)
So if the SpydieChef actually was made partly with food prep in mind (and I don´t know if this is the case!), I think a 2.5mm or even 2.00 mm blade stock would not have been a bad choice (though perhaps the concern here was that the frame lock requires thicker stock in order to provide enough lock interface to be really solid?!).

But then: I personally would like to see many Spydercos in a bit thinner stock (though to be fair: Spyderco does a good job on this already anyway compared to other brands).

[Wartstein]

In a way I´d like to try a Spydiechef, just in order to see if what I don´t like in theory would be an issue in real use:
That would be
1.) The positive blade angle (kind of an "Anti-Military") which I figure is very good when cutting on a board, but not in most other tasks
2.) The too blunt tip (again, kind of an "Anti-Military"): While I personally actually prefer a bit reenforced tips, this one seems to take it too far in that regard

But again, can´t really weigh in without having actually tried this knife, these are solely theoretical considerations

[Sonorum]

How much will thinning out the edge bevel improve the cutting performance vs actually thinning down the primary grind?

What's the stock thickness behind the edge? Is the kapara better?

A good question that I haven't seen anybody do a specific test for.

A thin blade stock and thin primary grind improves cutting performance in that it passes through material better but so does thinning out the edge bevel. If the main grind is thick, a thinned out edge makes a huge difference. I had a Kizer which was way above 20 dps and that was dreadful to cut with until I took it down to 17 dps. The blade is still chunky and the edge bevel is wide but the performance is very different.

Maybe a question is, if the behind-the-edge thickness is really thin, how big a difference is there between 20 and 17 dps?

I took a PM2 down to 12 dps and it held up fine and seemed to slice a hole lot better. Looks funky though.

Absolutely true of course.

But while it is pretty easy to give a knife a more acute edge angle or thinning it out just behind the edge, it is not really an option (for me at least) to give it an overall thinner bladestock without special equipment (that most don´t have at home?)
So if the SpydieChef actually was made partly with food prep in mind (and I don´t know if this is the case!), I think a 2.5mm or even 2.00 mm blade stock would not have been a bad choice (though perhaps the concern here was that the frame lock requires thicker stock in order to provide enough lock interface to be really solid?!).

But then: I personally would like to see many Spydercos in a bit thinner stock (though to be fair: Spyderco does a good job on this already anyway compared to other brands).

Me neither, I don't have the tools nor the skills, so that is not really an option. That's why I'm thinning out the edges!

[Gsg9]

The original post is talking about up-and-down blade-play but the discussion has been deviated to re-profiling the edge angle and pictures and stories of kitchen knives in Cronidur. Somebody even tells him that he shouldn't have that issue because he hasn't :rolleyes:

In normal use, if you didn't baton wood with it, lock-bar flex/deformation and up-and-down blade-play shouldn't show up on a framelock, one that's sold for 235USD.

I have the original version but mine is sitting in a box, that's the problem when you buy more than you actually need to use, but if you're getting blade play on a knife this expensive when normally using it for just one year that's not a good sign...

The original poster shouldn't have carbidized the lock-bar, should have sent the knife back to Spyderco to fix or replace it.

Maybe isn't too late to contact Spyderco and send them the knife to investigate.

[Wartstein]

The original post is talking about up-and-down blade-play but the discussion has been deviated to re-profiling the edge angle and pictures and stories of kitchen knives in Cronidur.....

Actually the original post also talked about things like that "every other Spyderco" the OP had would "cut better than the Chef" or the "chunky and "ungodly levels of thick" blade" of the latter...

So I think the discussion here has not really deviated too much. :)

[Gsg9]

In edge angles everybody's an expert so that's not very relevant, it could go on forever.
Spyderco is a production knife company, if you want extra thin edges/super acute angles should probably go custom.

The real issue here is the lockbar, he should probably send that to Spyderco to have a look, but then again he shouldn't have modified the knife (carbidized).

[curlyhairedboy]

I'm glad Slysz's most recent design incorporates a lockbar insert. Steel on steel is CQI :)

[Gsg9]

Techno 2 is recent enough and does not have a steel insert, Spyderco said they felt that is not necessary.
But it has a thicker lockbar.

[vivi]

How much will thinning out the edge bevel improve the cutting performance vs actually thinning down the primary grind?

What's the stock thickness behind the edge? Is the kapara better?

Quite a bit. I've tested this many many times.

You can easily replicate my tests. Take two cheap knives, say a Byrd Meadowlark. Keep one at the factory edge angle. Regrind another down to 10 degrees per side.

Now setup a scale on your work bench and cut things. Apples, carrots, cardboard, rope....anything you can think of.

On thicker materials like apples I've found dropping the edge angle can let them cut through these materials with 3-4x less force.

That's why every knife I use is reprofiled. More efficient cutting.

To me running thicker edges than I have to is like driving a high end sports car with the tires deflated to 20 PSI. You're giving up tons of performance with no real upside.

My chef knife still outcuts my pocket knife on food, but the performance gap is much smaller than it used to be.

[Abyss_Fish]

I feel like there’s a lot of confusion here...

• I don’t really blame anyone for the problems, not a jab at spyderco or anyone. If anything these problems are my fault. Just reporting how the knife responds to regular actual use.

• I use 20dps edges on my thinner knives (mostly kitchen knives) often because of it’s stability, since the geometry of the blade helps with cutting. Clearly I’ve made a misstep here assuming the chef was ground like a chef’s knife. I’m not super experienced in sharpening in general, and I tend to move towards thicker edges since I work mostly with chef’s knives.

• The mods I’ve done have done nothing but improve the knife. The carbidizing especially has helped immensely. It removed lockstick entirely and stopped the development of up and down play. All the others are cosmetic.

• I didn’t particularly abuse the knife, there’s people talking about batoning, why would anyone do that with a folder... I don’t baby any of my knives, but I understand their limits.

• And finally, I’m not selling it out of spite, I’m not even selling it yet at all! I’ve been looking at the aforementioned custom piece for years! It was partly the reason I bought the chef in the first place, and I’m simply living out that original fantasy. I may even end up re-buying a new chef in the future, it wouldn’t be the first spyderco I’ve done that with. But it just won’t have a place in my collection once that custom shows up.

I love when my posts end up with this much discussion behind them. I must be doing something right! So in conclusion, you guys should buy a waterway. Have a great week.